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Hyperlinking Audited Financial Statements to Unaudited Information in the Presence of the WebTrust Logo: Hodge's Model Revised
Author(s) -
Pike Ruth V.,
Lanis Romun
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
international journal of auditing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1099-1123
pISSN - 1090-6738
DOI - 10.1111/1099-1123.00065
Subject(s) - credibility , hyperlink , logo (programming language) , audit , accounting , liability , business , trustworthiness , computer science , internet privacy , world wide web , web page , political science , law , programming language
This paper identifies a possible relationship between WebTrust, initiated by the AICPA/CICA as an attestation service for web sites, and the potentially misleading effect of hyperlinking audited financial statements to unaudited information. We argue that firms hyperlinking such information increase the perceived credibility of the unaudited information, which may be exacerbated by the presence of a recognisable, symbolically trustworthy logo. We formulate testable hypotheses by modifying an existing theoretical framework which relates to hyperlinked materials and their effect on investor judgements. The amended model extends to all potential users of financial information and incorporates the web‐based assurance logo of WebTrust. We anticipate that this model will become instrumental in determining the extent of any expectation gap regarding user perceptions, thus facilitating the process of recommending policies to eliminate the potentially misleading effects of web‐based financial information and therefore limiting the risk of corporate fraud and the legal liability of auditors.